Britain and America: Shaping the Future of Europe

As the world's leaders gather in Evian at the G-8 summit (search),
the divide between Europe and the United States over Iraq continues
to loom large. But President Bush has a formidable ally at his
side: British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Indeed, the Anglo-U.S. special relationship is at its strongest
point since the days when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan
bravely fought the scourge of Soviet communism. Blair's high-risk
strategy on Iraq has reaped enormous dividends in Washington. The
British prime minister wields a great deal of influence in a city
where foreign leaders are usually given short shrift. Far from
being Bush's "poodle," Blair has emerged as a key figure helping
shape the direction of U.S. strategic thinking.

In stark contrast, Washington views the leaders of France and
Germany with deep suspicion, and their views have little bearing on
the future direction of U.S. foreign policy. Similarly, the views
of the European Union (search) as an organization have been
dismissed as an irrelevance, or at best as a minor irritation. It
is doubtful that one in 100 Americans could even identify Romano
Prodi as president of the European Commission, while Blair has
become a household name.

As a consequence of Blair's standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush
since Sept. 11 (search), British prestige and power on the global
stage has been immeasurably enhanced. Britain is now unquestionably
the world's second-most important power - politically,
strategically and militarily - and was the keystone of the
50-nation U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" formed to unseat
Saddam Hussein. Britain is also the natural leader of the "New
Europe," working in alliance with Spain, Italy and Poland to head a
group of more than 20 pro-American nations across the
continent.

The current divide offers London a rare opportunity to shape the
destiny of Europe. The debate over Iraq is less about the future of
the Middle East than it is about the future of the continent. For
the first time in the past half-century, Franco-German hegemony in
continental Europe is being eroded, and France and Germany now
represent the minority view in Europe.

All of this means that now is an ideal time for Britain and
America, with the support of the Poles, Czechs and other nations of
Eastern and Central Europe about to enter the European Union, to
present a new, positive vision for Europe. The grandiose dream of a
united federal Europe, so beloved of French and German strategists,
must be firmly rejected. In its place, London and Washington must
call for a flexible Europe, united by a common heritage and
culture, but which maintains the principle of national sovereignty
at its core.

With this new vision of Europe, U.S. and British national interests
converge. A common European foreign and security policy that
prevents Britain from fighting alongside the United States would be
a nightmare scenario for planners in Washington. The intense debate
over Iraq has resulted in a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward
Europe. For 50 years the United States has encouraged and helped
drive the process of European integration. However, the Bush
administration is beginning to conclude that a monolithic Europe is
neither in the interests of the citizens of the United States nor
the people of Europe.

Indeed there are many senior figures in the Pentagon and in the
White House who would share the assessment of Lady Thatcher in her
latest book Statecraft - "that such an unnecessary and irrational
project as building a European superstate was ever embarked upon
will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the
modern era."

The vociferous condemnation of U.S. foreign policy that has emerged
across Europe since Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech has awoken a
sleeping giant, which until recently had been content to quietly
acquiesce in what German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer once
described as "the finality of European integration." In the coming
years we can expect to see Washington take a more pro-active and
aggressive approach toward Brussels and work more with individual
European states, rather than attempt to deal with a weak and
comically self-deluded Brussels.

It will be in America's interests to strengthen the hand of those
European governments that oppose the concept of a highly
centralized Europe. In the years ahead there will be increasing
calls in Washington for a Europe of independent nation states, held
together not by an artificial constitution and undemocratic
government, but by the principles of free trade, individual liberty
and national identity.

Britain, by virtue of her prime minister's farsighted diplomatic
support for America, has assured itself the primary role in driving
this new vision of Europe, which in the end will best suit the many
diverse citizens of the continent.

Nile Gardiner is
Visiting Fellow in Anglo-American Security Policy, and John Hulsman is Research
Fellow in European Affairs, at The Heritage Foundation.